New York and Amsterdam

Immigration and the New Urban Landscape

Nancy Foner

Publication Year: 2014

Immigration is dramatically changing major cities throughout the world. Nowhere is this more so than in New York City and Amsterdam, which, after decades of large-scale immigration, now have populations that are more than a third foreign-born. These cities have had to deal with the challenge of incorporating hundreds of thousands of immigrants whose cultures, languages, religions, and racial backgrounds differ dramatically from those of many long-established residents. New York and Amsterdam brings together a distinguished and interdisciplinary group of American and Dutch scholars to examine and compare the impact of immigration on two of the world’s largest urban centers.

The original essays in this volume discuss how immigration has affected social, political, and economic structures, cultural patterns, and intergroup relations in the two cities, investigating how the particular, and changing, urban contexts of New York City and Amsterdam have shaped immigrant and second generation experiences. Despite many parallels between New York and Amsterdam, the differences stand out, and juxtaposing essays on immigration in the two cities helps to illuminate the essential issues that today’s immigrants and their children confront. Organized around five main themes, this bookoffers an in-depth view of the impact of immigration as it affects particular places, with specific histories, institutions, and immigrant populations. New York and Amsterdam profoundly contributes to our broader understanding of the transformations wrought by immigration and the dynamics of urban change, providing new insights into how—and why— immigration’s effects differ on the two sides of the Atlantic.

Nancy Foner is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Jan Rath is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. Jan WillemDuyvendak is Professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. Rogier van Reekum is Ph.D. candidate at the University of Amsterdam.

Cover

Contents

Acknowledgments

This book has its origins in a conference held at the University of
Amsterdam in January 2011. Entitled “Amsterdam and New York: The
Impact of Immigration in Two Global Cities,” the conference brought
together a distinguished group of scholars to explore—and compare—
how immigration has dramatically changed Amsterdam and New York
in recent decades ...

Introduction: New York and Amsterdam: Immigration and the New Urban Landscape

Immigration is dramatically changing major cities throughout the
world. Nowhere is this more true than in Amsterdam and New York
City, which, after decades of large-scale immigration, now have populations
that are about a third foreign born. ...

Part I: How Has the Immigrant Past Shaped the Immigrant Present in New York City and Amsterdam?

Historians have related the past to the present in numerous ways, the
most familiar of which may be Hegel’s vision that the present is a necessary
outcome of the past. In The Poverty of Historicism (1957), Karl Popper
attacked this teleological vision as the core of totalitarian ideologies
that claim that the realization of their (communist or fascist) ideas is
part of a grand historical plan. ...

1. Immigration History and the Remaking of New York

New York is America’s quintessential immigrant city. It has long been
a major gateway for the nation’s new arrivals and is a leading receiving
center today. It is fitting that the two most powerful symbols of immigration
in the United States—the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island—stand in New York City’s harbor. ...

2. To Amsterdam: Migrations Past and Present

One of the classic pitfalls of the historical discipline is the temptation to
see the present as the inevitable outcome of developments in the past.1
Professional historians are often highly critical of such a simplistic teleological
path dependency reasoning, but in practice it is not so easy to
avoid— ...

Part II: What Difference Does the Urban Economy Make to Immigrant Incorporation?

The spatial concentration of economic activities and the concomitant
proliferation of economic opportunities have always encouraged
individuals to gravitate to urban environments. The development of
Amsterdam and New York as diverse and economically powerful world
cities and immigrant meccas is evidently no exception. ...

3. Immigrants in New York City’s Economy: A Portrait in Full Living Color

New York is in a period of immigration as extensive as at any time in its
long history as a hub of international migration. As of 2009, three million
immigrants lived in New York City, comprising 36 percent of the
population—making immigration comparable to the twentieth-century
peak in 1910, when two million immigrants made up 41 percent of the
city’s population.1 ...

4. From Amsterdamned to I Amsterdam: The Amsterdam Economy and Its Impact on the Labor Market Position of Migrants, 1980–2010

Only a little more than two decades ago, Amsterdam was a “city in crisis”
(Terhorst and Van de Ven 2003: 95). Economic prospects looked
bleak, parts of the infrastructure were deteriorating, crime was rising,
and middle-class families left the city in droves for the green suburbs. ...

Part III: Is Islam in Amsterdam Like Race in New York City?

In Amsterdam, Islam is a major barrier facing immigrants; in New York
City, race operates in a similar fashion. Yet if Islam in Amsterdam is
like race in New York City in many ways, there are also profound differences
between the two urban contexts. ...

5. Nativism, Racism, and Immigration in New York City

When immigrants enter a new society the history and institutions of
that society shape the opportunities and obstacles they will encounter.
Most comparisons of the integration of immigrants in Europe and the
U.S. begin with an acknowledgement of that fact. ...

6. Governing through Religion in Amsterdam: The Stigmatization of Ethnic Cultures and the Uses of Islam

Islam is being transformed in each and every corner of the world, and
Europe is definitely no exception.1 Muslims in Europe—the dramatis
personae of this religion—have demonstrated a wide and continuously
changing variety of affiliations to Islam. ...

Part IV: How Are Immigrants Entering the Precincts of Power in New York City and Amsterdam?

Politics are a central element in the urban landscape. The huge influx of
immigrants has inevitably changed political dynamics in Amsterdam
and New York City, bringing hundreds of thousands of new voters onto
the political scene. At the same time, the way immigrants have entered
the precincts of power has been shaped by the structure of political
arrangements ...

7. The Rise of Immigrant Influence in New York City Politics

While we have known that immigrants and their children have made
up a majority of New York City’s residents since the Federal Government’s
Current Population Survey (CPS) began to collect data on parents’
place of birth in 1994, it may come as a surprise that they are now
approaching a majority of its voting-age citizens as well. ...

8. Immigrant Political Engagement and Incorporation in Amsterdam

Over the past 50 years, first- and second-generation immigrants have
grown from less than 1 percent of Amsterdam’s population to more
than 50 percent (Wintershoven 2000; O S 2010).1 Given this profound
demographic change, newcomers’ political representation is especially
relevant. ...

Part V: How Are the Children of Immigrants Shaped by and also Changing New York City’s and Amsterdam’s Cultural Life?

Cities of migration are the birthplaces of new artistic and cultural forms.
Children of immigrants play a vital role in such innovation. They bring
all kinds of new ideas, outlooks, and practices into the cultural arena.
Influenced by their immigrant parents as well as the receiving society and
city, ...

9. Immigrants, the Arts, and the “Second-Generation Advantage” in New York

When we think of the culture of New York or Amsterdam, artistic
innovation, high levels of cultural diversity, and a brusque but tolerant
cosmopolitanism are often what come to mind.1 These images are, of
course, stereotypes. Yet they contain more than a grain of truth. ...

10. Immigrant Youths’ Contribution to Urban Culture in Amsterdam

Amsterdam’s cultural life has been changed in a variety of ways by the
children of immigrants. Taking our lead from Ulf Hannerz (1992), in
this chapter we look at Amsterdam’s culture from a processual perspective.
Cultures are always in a state of flux, and this is obviously the case
in contemporary globalized societies such as the Netherlands, ...

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